Competition and Envy
One
There is a good form of competition and a bad form.
Competition can be a good thing. It can be an activity that benefits all the participants as long as it’s simply an activity geared towards everyone trying to become as excellent as they can. Because, basically, there are two ways you get better at something.
The first is to practice in ways that challenge you. And the second is to observe someone who is able to show you how you can improve. In other words, to have somebody else set a standard that’s worth reaching for.
That’s basically what we’re supposed to do when we engage in competitive sports. We challenge other people as they challenge us, and we set standards for each other so that each person can experience an excellent performance that they can try to reach and surpass.
But competition can be spoiled by envy.
Envious competition happens when you don’t care about being better than you are, all you care about is being better than everyone else. So, you attack everyone else.
Two
Envy
Envy is sadness at someone else’s good and pleasure at someone else’s misfortune.
Envy flows from sinful pride. C.S. Lewis says, “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others.”
God created every person to fulfill a specific unrepeatable role in his plan of making the world a better place. We’ve all got a first-string place on His team. God wants us to be excellent. So we should strive for excellence as we work to do what God created us to do and fulfill the role he’s given us.
But the need to win, the need to be better than everyone else, is disordered sinful pride.
Think about this mindset: if I win then I am a winner and I am worth more as a person; whereas, if I lose, then I am a loser and worth less as a person. In this mindset, my identity and value as a person comes from winning. And if I lose or fail then I lose my identity, value, and even my existence.
Barry Sanders, one of the best running backs in the history of the NFL, when someone suggested that he was a great athlete responded, “I didn’t get it done. I didn’t win a Super Bowl.” And he was sad.
He had less delight in himself because his team didn’t defeat everyone. That’s sad because the need to win it all diminished his delight in his own excellence.
Three
Envy is the Sin of Satan
When I have done my best but someone else is better and I am sad about it, that is pride and envy. And it is the sin of Satan.
Lucifer was the highest angel. But God was greater than Satan in every way. Satan was truly magnificent. He was excellent! But he could not be better than God, he could not be the best, and Satan hated God for this and rejected him.
To see the world, others, and yourself through the lens of sinful competition, where the only way you win is if someone loses – I win, you lose – and I can’t rest until I am better than everyone, well, that is disordered.
Four
Seeing the world as God sees it.
God wants us to see the world and our lives as he created it.
I imagine God would say to me, “I am your Father and Michael, you are my son. I gave you special gifts and a specific and necessary place and role on my Team. And I have done the same for all my children, for everyone in the world. All you have to do is play your part. You will please me if you strive to become excellent at your role and do some good for others and contribute some good for the world. Michael if you do that, then everyone wins. And don’t be angry, sad, or anxious when others excel by doing something similar to you because when they also excel, it creates a greater interest and demand for what you do.”
Isn’t that how it works in sports, music, restaurants, businesses, and actually…in everything?
Five
Now Imagine I replied to God, “Yes, Father, but we live in a world of pride and disordered competition. I have to win, to be better than everyone or I won’t be chosen, I won’t have friends, I won’t find a spouse and have a family and I’ll be alone. I won’t have a job or money, and I won’t have safety and security. I’ll be a failure and then I will be worthless.”
But listen very carefully to how God would respond, “Do not give into that lie. It is the lie of Satan! I am God your Father Almighty! I govern the world. If you strive to do what I created you to do, then I will enable you to do it and you will be happy and at peace.”
But our constant temptation will be that if others are better and if we don’t win all the time or get all the friends or all the dates, or all the business then somehow we will be less. But we can’t have all the friends, all the dates and spouses and families and business. You couldn’t handle them all - just the ones God intends for you.
And, if you are not getting what you want, if you can’t make a living at what you are doing, then you may not be doing the will of God or you may need to do it in a different way. Because God always makes the accomplishing of his plan for you possible. In fact, all things are possible to God.